Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao (1917-1984) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the

2nd Lok Sabha The Second Lok Sabha (5 April 1957 – 31 March 1962) was elected after the 1957 Indian general election. The 2nd Lok Sabha lasted its full tenure of five years till 1962. 15 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 2nd Lok Sabha after ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He represented the

Nalgonda Nalgonda is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Telangana. It is the headquarters of the Nalgonda district, as well as the headquarters of the Nalgonda mandal in the Nalgonda revenue division. It is located about from the state ca ...

constituency of

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

. D.V. Rao was born in Ingurthi village,

Warangal District Warangal district, formerly Warangal Rural district, is a district in the Indian state of Telangana. The district shares boundaries with Mahabubabad, Jangaon, Hanamkonda, Mulugu and Bhupalpally districts. As of June 2021, Hanamkonda tentativ ...

on June 1, 1917, son of Devulapalli Varada Rao.countercurrents.org.
Veteran Communist Revolutionary DV Rao Remembered
'Lok Sabha.

' His family hailed from Bandameedi Chandupatla village, Suryapet taluk,

Nalgonda District Nalgonda district is a district in the Telangana state of India. Nalgonda district has the highest number of mandals in the state with 31 mandals. The district shares boundaries with Suryapet, Rangareddy, Yadadri and Nagarkurnool districts ...

. Whilst a high school student in

Khammam Khammam formally (Khammam Mettu) is the city in Khammam district of the Indian state of Telangana. It is the fourth largest city in the state. It is the headquarters of the Khammam district and Khammam mandal also. It is located about east of ...

he took part in the 3rd conference of the

Andhra Mahasabha Andhra Mahasabha (Telugu language, Telugu: ఆంధ్ర మహాసభ, IAST: ''Āndhra mahāsabha'') was a people's organisation in the erstwhile Hyderabad state of India. The organization spearheaded people's awareness and people's movemen ...

. D.V. Rao was active in the students movement, organizing protests against the

Nizam of Hyderabad The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

government. Whilst a B.A. student at

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...

, he was an organiser of the 'Vande Mataram' students movement in Hyderabad State. He was expelled from university for his role in the protests, but was able to complete his graduation at Jabalpur Arts College in 1938. He came into contact with Marxist literature during this period. After having returned to his village, he married Ranganayakamma in May 1939. D.V. Rao was recruited by the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

in 1939. D.V. Rao would serve as President of the Nalgonda District Committee of the

, and would go on to serve as secretary of the organization. He was a key organiser of the Telangana armed struggle and spent eight years in the underground (until 1953). He played an active part in the drafting of the 1948 ''Andhra Thesis'' of the Provincial Secretariat of CPI, which for the first time in India outlined a revolutionary line inspired by the experiences of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

under

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

. In the late 1960s Rao argued that the surrender of arms of the Telangana struggle had been a great betrayal. He was the secretary of the Nalgonda District Committee of the CPI, and secretariat member of the CPI Telangana Committee (formed in February 1952) and a member of the CPI Central Committee. D.V. Rao was the youngest member of the CPI before the 1964 split. He served as Vice President of the Telangana Kisan Sabha. D.V. Rao was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from the Nalgonda constituency in the

1957 Indian general election General elections were held in India between 24 February and 9 June 1957, the second elections to the Lok Sabha after independence. They were held five years after the 1951–52 elections in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution o ...

. In June 1968 Rao founded the

Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (APCCCR) was a leftist split from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The leader of the group was T. Nagi Reddy, who was a mem ...

(APCCCR) along with

T. Nagi Reddy Tarimela Nagi Reddy (11 February 1917 – 28 July 1976) was a communist politician from Andhra Pradesh, India. He was born in a wealthy family in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. He completed his schooling from the Rishi Valley School, Rishi ...

Chandra Pulla Reddy Chandra Pulla Reddy (1917 – 9 November 1984, Calcutta) was an Indian communist leader. Chandra Pulla Reddy was born in 1917 at Velugodu village in what is currently the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. A leading activist in Indian freedom ...

and Kolla Venkaiah. In April 1975 D.V. Rao and T. Nagi Reddy founded the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist–Leninist) (UCCRI(ML)). In 1974 D.V. Rao's ''Telangana Armed Struggle and the Path of Indian Revolution'' was published in English and Telugu. The pamphlet was a review of

P. Sundarayya Puchalapalli Sundarayya (Born Sundararami Reddy on 1 May 1913 – 19 May 1985) popularly known as Comrade PS was an Indian Communist politician leader including of the peasant revolt in the former Hyderabad State of India, called the Telangan ...

's work ''Telangana People’s Struggle and its Lessons''. In the late 1970s, he became the founding editor of ''The Proletarian Line''. D.V. Rao died on July 12, 1984. His work ''The History of the People’s Armed Struggle of Telangana (1946-51) Volume-I'' was published in Telugu posthumously in 1988, the book covers the history of the Telangana struggle up to the 1948 Police Action.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, D.V. 1917 births 1984 deaths Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Telangana Lok Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh India MPs 1957–1962 People from Hanamkonda district